The effort to vaccinate Americans against the coronavirus is growing faster, and recent cases have dropped to the lowest level in three months, but authorities are worried that the painful Super Bowl holidays could fuel new outbreaks.
More than 4 million vaccinations were reported over the weekend, a significantly faster clip than in previous days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Almost one in 10 Americans has now received at least one blow. But only 2.9% of the US population has been completely vaccinated, far from 70% or more, which experts say must be inoculated to conquer the outbreak.
Newly confirmed infections dropped to an average of 117,000 a day, the lowest point since early November. This is a sharp drop from the peak of almost 250,000 a day in early January.
The number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 also dropped sharply to about 81,000, down from more than 130,000 last month.
Health officials say the decline in hospitalizations and new cases most likely reflects a decline in growth that has been fueled by holiday gatherings and perhaps better compliance with safety measures.
Dropping new cases occurs because fewer tests for the virus are reported. But experts say the decline in cases is real. It is more pronounced than the apparent slowdown in testing and is accompanied by other encouraging signs.
“We are seeing a real decline because it has been sustained over time and is correlated with declining hospitalizations,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a specialist in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University. “That tells you there seems to be something moving.”
The question, he said, is whether a smaller number can be sustained as new variants of the virus become available in the United States. President Joe Biden has announced plans to spend billions to boost rapid tests by the summer.
Deaths caused by COVID-19 in the United States are still close to all-time highs, averaging about 3,160 a day, down about 200 from mid-January. The total death toll eclipsed 460,000.
Federal officials warn states not to relax restrictions on meals and other social activities.
“We need to control this pandemic,” CDC chief Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday.
The sight of fans, many without masks, celebrating Super Bowl on the streets, in sports bars and at parties watching games has raised concerns about new outbreaks.
“That’s not how we should celebrate the Super Bowl,” the St. Louis mayor wrote on Twitter. Petersburg, Florida, Rick Kriseman, after a party without a mask was hosted by rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in a hangar at the city’s airport, not far from where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the title.
“She is not safe or smart. It’s a stupidity. We will take a very close look at this and it can cost someone much more than 50 cents. ”
Police in Charleston, South Carolina, issued summonses to nearly 50 people for not wearing masks in public during Sunday’s game.
Richard Medina of Los Angeles attended a friend’s party in a friend’s yard on Sunday, although he knew the number of cases in Southern California remained high.
“It was outdoors and I felt it was going to be pretty cold,” said Medina, who spent most of last year alone with a roommate who hates sports. He liked the escape, but decided to leave after a while.
“More people started showing up later and it was felt that the more people drank, the more they started to become careless about masks and keep their distance,” he said.
Matt Reischling of Petaluma, California, said that after a careful analysis of the safety of the situation, he went to a small gathering of about six people with the family of a friend who had been vaccinated near San Francisco.
It was his first meeting with several people in several months.
“It was a mental health issue for me to leave the city and visually set my eyes on different things, to talk to different people, regardless of the potential risk.”
He was excited to see the active children and the family dog barking as their wings fried in the backyard.
“I feel very energized by the visit and I need more of them,” he said, “so in the end, it’s totally worth it.”
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Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Andrew Dalton and Jeffrey Collins contributed to this story.